


I’ll Be Here If You Need Me, By Your Side

by Leath909



Category: OMORI (Video Game)
Genre: God there's a lot of baggage to unpack here, Hero is everyone's big brother, Mari is an Angel, Set after the good ending, There is a lot of baggage to unpack here, This is just my way of processing this game, he deserves the world
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28547913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leath909/pseuds/Leath909
Summary: She was wearing a white dress on the day that she saved him.Sunny and Hero remember Mari, after Sunny tells the truth.Set after the good ending of the game.
Relationships: Sunny & Hero (OMORI), Sunny & Mari (OMORI)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 135





	I’ll Be Here If You Need Me, By Your Side

_She was wearing a white dress on the day that she saved him._

_It flowed in the water, as if she was flying, in the second that Sunny saw her floating above him. Having dived in after him, she grabbed his hand and pulled it up to lift his body towards the surface of the water._

_Together, Mari and Sunny emerged from beneath the water’s surface, gasping for air. Holding onto her brother tightly, Mari swam to the shore and pushed Sunny out onto dry land first, before lifting herself out of the water beside him._

_Gasping for breath from panic and exertion, Mari steadied herself on her hands and knees for a moment, while Sunny coughed up the remnants of water in his lungs beside her. Hauling him away from the water’s edge, Mari checked Sunny’s vital signs before pulling him into a tight hug, as he continued coughing into her shoulder._

_Her panicked breaths began to subside as the burning in Sunny’s chest slowly lifted, and Sunny felt Mari shaking gently against him as she held him in her arms. She pulled away, and Sunny realised she was crying, as she lifted one hand to her face to wipe away the tears._

_“Sunny… You can’t go scaring me like that,” she said through her quiet sobs, her mouth forming into a relieved smile as she held his hand in hers, “I don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t made it here any sooner.”_

_Sunny looked at her, trying to figure out why she would be smiling at him when he was expecting her to be angry. She looked up at him with brown, gentle eyes. “Don’t go scaring your big sister like that again, alright?” she spoke._

_Suddenly, Sunny understood why he wasn’t in trouble at all, despite the fact that he had been the one who to go out to the lake by himself, after becoming separated from Mari in the park. He nodded, and she pulled him into another hug. “Thank you, Sunny,” she said against his brow, holding him close against her chest._

_“Now, let’s get you home before you catch a cold.”_

_Sunny had never felt his sister hold more tightly onto his hand than she had that afternoon, as they walked home from the park drenched from head to toe, ignoring the concerned looks strangers gave them as they passed by._

§ § §

Hero looked out over the lake, the lake he had pulled Basil out of a few days back, the same one Mari had saved Sunny from all those years ago. Sunny sat on the same pier beside him, looking at him with one eye still covered by a medical eyepatch.

The sun was beginning to descend down into the treeline behind them, just as it had that day Sunny and Mari walked home drenched in lake-water. Sunny was still dressed in his hospital gown, having snuck out of the centre by climbing out of a window to avoid being seen.

“Go after him,” Kel had told him back in Basil’s hospital room, his expression caught somewhere between shock and confusion in the face of Sunny’s confession. He had taken the revelation of Mari’s death better than his brother, who, after going completely silent, left the hospital with an unreadable expression.

“I’ll take care of Aubrey,” Kel had said, looking worriedly over at the pink-haired girl seated in the back of the room. “I need you to- Sunny, you need to talk to Hero.” Sunny had never seen Kel so serious before, the sight of it unsettling him. He nodded, and Kel let go of his shoulders before heading over towards Aubrey.

Climbing up a nightstand beneath an open window, Sunny looked back, seeing Basil’s concerned expression from his hospital bed, as well as Kel gently placing his hand on Aubrey’s arm, whose eyes were springing with tears as she stared incredulously at the ground.

Basil gave Sunny an uncertain nod, looking directly into his covered eye, before Sunny jumped out onto the grass of the garden outside of the hospital, catching the distant silhouette of Hero heading towards town. Realising he was not wearing any shoes, Sunny carefully made his way through the undergrowth on the outside of the hospital garden, before following Hero down the road.

Too weak to run, Sunny barely caught up to Hero by the time he had made it to the park, heading straight through the secret passage that led to their old hiding place.

That’s where Sunny sat down beside him, after walking past a pair of shoes filled with socks, onto the pier overlooking the lake that had once been their secret hideout.

Hero’s expression was solemn and reflective, leaning his arm on one leg he had perched upon the old wooden pier. His other leg dangled lazily over the edge of the jetty, his foot brushing the surface of the water. He sighed, his breath hitching slightly, before he quietly spoke:

“I spent some of the best days of my life with you and your sister,” he said, his expression unchanging, “And with Kel, and Aubrey and Basil as well, of course.” His voice cracked slightly, and Hero cleared his throat, before continuing on:

“All of the picnics, the days in the treehouse, the late afternoons by the beach…” He paused for a moment, lost in a particular thought, before he softly smiled. 

“The way Mari and I took care of you four shaped who I am today,” he nodded, as if reaffirming his statement to himself, lifting his other foot down into the water and folding his hands onto his lap. “I still see all of those memories as clear as yesterday. I still see her face, as clear as I did back then, as well.” Hero bit his lip, taking a shaky breath and pausing for a few moments.

“The point is,” he finally met Sunny’s eye for the first time since leaving the hospital, “I saw all four of you, not just Kel, as the siblings that I cared for more than anyone in the world,” he tried to smile again, but there was sadness in his eyes that betrayed no joy.

“I loved all four of you, Sunny, I really did,” he spoke, “But I don’t think I have ever loved anyone as much as I loved Mari.” Tears that had been welling in Hero’s eyes started to stream down his face, as his voice began to give out.

“And I’m not sure if I ever will, again” choking on the last word, Hero’s composure finally shattered as he broke down into tears, holding his head in his hands as he cried on the pier overlooking the lake. His sobs were deep and raw with the hurt that had been buried for years on end, rocking his entire body as the sound reverberated softly over the placid water.

Sunny had never seen Hero cry, and felt tears welling in his own eyes too, stinging the wound beneath his eyepatch. Unsure of what to do or what to say, he shifted closer to Hero and, after a moment’s hesitation, placed his hand on Hero’s knee.

“I’m sorry.”

The words came out much quieter than Sunny had wanted them to, but Hero’s body seemed to pause, and relax slightly at the sound of his voice. His eyes were red when he looked at him, but his expression had softened, settled beyond the deep anguish that had been buried all this time.

He shook his head for a moment, his mouth forming into a gentle, bittersweet smile, before he pulled Sunny into a hug.

Sunny, overwhelmed for a moment by the sudden sensation of Hero’s much larger frame pressing against his, managed to calm down when Hero spoke quietly into his brow: “It’s okay Sunny,” he said, “It’s alright now.”

Hero paused for a moment, as he steadied a deep breath that turned into a sigh of release.

“I forgive you.”

Sunny’s breath caught in his throat upon hearing those words. The tears that had been welling in his eyes started streaming down his face, as Sunny began to cry into Hero’s arms. Hero held him gently, tears still flowing down his own face, as he repeated phrases like: “I know,” and, “It’s alright, now,” to Sunny.

Sunny kept crying, ignoring the sting from his right eye as he finally opened his heart to the pain of living with the fear, the guilt and the loneliness that he had felt for all these years. 

“I know it wasn’t your fault,” Hero was telling him, slightly adjusting himself so he could place a hand on the back of Sunny’s head, “And I know that you miss her more than anyone else could.”

Sunny could feel the tears trickling down Hero’s face dripping onto his hair.

“But it’s alright now,” Hero said, “We’ll both be alright.”

They remained like that for a moment, until Sunny’s breathing had settled and his eyes felt swollen and raw from crying.

“Come on,” Hero eventually spoke, helping Sunny to his feet before walking over to find his shoes in the last few reddened glimmers of daylight, “We should go back to the others.”

He looked back at Sunny, his expression changing into something more solemn for a second, as he met Sunny’s still functioning eye: “I think you and Basil still have a lot to talk about.”

Sunny nodded slowly, reaching up to feel the dampened surface of his eyepatch with his fingertips. Hero’s features softened again, as he held out his hand, “And we’ll have to get that eyepatch replaced for you as well. Come on.”

Together, they navigated their way through the secret passage that would return them to the park. Hero held Sunny’s hand as they walked back to the hospital, both inwardly hoping that maybe, just maybe, things really could go back to how they used to be.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know your thoughts and criticisms (as well as any mistakes) in the comments. I knew this game would make me feel things, but whew


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